Gundam SEED: Sapphire
by EvenAngels
Summary: An "original" story set in the future of the C.E timeline, featuring the struggle of the United Earth Rebellion against the Earth Sphere Peace Alliance forces. M for future content. Disclaimer - Gundam and all related info belongs to Sunrise and Bandai.
1. Chapter 1: Raining Fire

_**82 years after the end of the second Bloody Valentine war ZAFT, the Alliance and the rest of the world's nations no longer exist. Instead, they have been replaced with the collective nation of the Earth Sphere Peace Alliance. Using force to provoke peace across the Earth Sphere, the ESPA military forces are constantly being enlarged.**_

_**After 19 years of the forceful oppression felt by many, the United Earth Rebellion is created. Within 3 months they take control of 5 small mining colonies built around the asteroid belt. It was only a matter of 4 months more before ESPA declared war upon the Rebellion. By that point, however, the UER has placed defensive armaments on the colonies, as well as repaired almost 40 battleships that had been sleeping in the asteroid belt.**_

_**The war became drawn out as large missiles and ordinance weapons were made useless against the colonies due to the asteroid belt. This lead to the formation of ESPA's elite force, SHIELD. Using highly customized and sometimes unique Mobile Suits, they began to overwhelm the UER forces. In response, the UER conducted Project X; the creation of 3 new mobile suit types.**_

_**C.E. 174, one hundred years after the second Bloody Valentine war, the UER's Project X reaches the testing phase, using a real life mission as the testing ground.**_

* * * * *

"All systems green. Re-entry mode active. 300 seconds until break limit point."  
A young masked man sitting within a cockpit of a mobile suit was staring directly forward. His gruff voice was shaking just as much as the cockpit itself due to the resistance on his Mobile Suit due to moving through the atmosphere.

"How about you two?"  
"All systems green, sir," replied a female voice. Just a short distance from the masked man's Suit were two other Mobile Suits, also going through the re-entry process; his blue and white one, the woman's red and black one and another black and white one. Although at that moment they all appeared mostly red due to the heat exerted on them.  
"Everything is go here, Captain Aritide."

A deep voice came over the communication system from the third suit. The pilot, a young man with a very focus expression on his face, gripped the controls of his suit tightly as it began to shake even harder.

"Captain," said the young woman, "may I ask a question?"  
"Go ahead Serenity," he replied.  
"When we land, what are Marcus and I to do?"  
"You are to head to point 3A whilst I move to point 4B. From there we will perform a pincer attack on the target building."

The target building the Captain was referring to was a small SHIELD command outpost located within the Nevada desert. Reconnaissance planes had shown that the outpost was weakly guarded, leading to the belief that it was of little important. However, it was still a change from the UER to show their seriousness of resisting the ESTA and SHIELD rule, as well as the perfect setting to test their newest mobile weapons. 

*** * * * ***

Within the Nevada base, warning sirens rudely awaken the sleeping soldiers. The surveillance officers run to the control room, quickly examining the scanners, unable to make visual confirmation due to the darkness of the night.

"What's the situation!?"  
The demanding voice that filled the room came from an elderly looking man dressed in a white Captain's uniform. His face was covered by an incredibly serious expression as he marched into the room, almost in a furious manner.

"Sir, we've picked up 3 unknown units closing in from 10 o'clock. They appear to be coming from above."  
"Any carriers around the area?"  
"Negative, sir," replied the man at the scanner. "They seem to have performed atmospheric re-entry."

The Captain's expression swiftly changed to a look of confusion. It was well known throughout the ESPA forces that the UER didn't have any mobile suits with that sort of capability. However, if the units were friendly, they would have given their IFF code by now.  
"Very well, shoot them down." 

*** * * * ***

"Captain Aritide," shouted Marcus over the comm. System. "They're targeting us with AA guns."  
"I can see that. Initiate attack formations."

The three Mobile Suits moved apart, with Marcus and Serenity moving east and Captain Aritide moving west. Within seconds all three were under fire from the beam cannons situated around the base. With each of them darting left and right, they were able to make use of their Suits' manoeuvrability to dodge the relatively slow beam shots.

"Testing the cannon," announced the Captain. His Suit raised a large cannon from its right side, holding the trigger with its right hand and stabilizing it with the left. A small spark of energy appeared at the tip of the cannon, before a sudden and massive blast of green energy burst forth, heading straight from the AA guns on the west side of the base. They were annihilated, resulting in a massive explosion that shook the base itself. Then it was time to touch down.

"Marcus Rite, Fallen Gundam, initiating testing mission."  
"Serenity Leone, Sapphire Gundam, Hardedge pack, starting the test."  
"Kyle Aritide, Silent Gundam, here we go!"

The three suits moved forward through the night. Marcus took hold of the Fallen's scythe and activated his thrusters. Speeding toward the now emerging Murasame mobile suits, he swiftly sliced them all in two. The explosions rocked his Suit as he continued his assault. Serenity grasped the massive sword on her Suit's Hardedge equipment pack and moved to join the fray. Although the size of the sword made her attacks slower than Marcus', its size meant she was taking out 2 to 4 Suits with each swipe.

On the other side of the base, Kyle opened fire again with his suit's Porta-Lohengrin, swinging the shot from left to right, removing a huge amount of the defence force in seconds.

"Alright you two, enough playing around. Let's get this over with."  
"Understood," replied Marcus.  
"Yes, sir," said Serenity.

With that, all three changed their targets to the base itself. Marcus went straight for the control tower, slicing it vertically with his scythe. Serenity moved to the Mobile Suit hangars and started to slice them into pieces bit by bit.

Kyle, on the other hand, took aim at the main power supply; a large number of electrical reactors. With one blast from his cannon, the first set of the reactors exploded, causing a chain reaction that moved across the facility as the power surges and heat from the explosions caused the ammunition storage area to detonate, sending shrapnel and ammo in every direction, hitting every section of the base.

"Alright team, move over. This mission is complete. We are to head to the rendezvous point immediately."  
"Understood, Fallen Gundam heading out."  
"Yes sir, Sapphire Gundam moving to the rendezvous location."

As she flew off into the desert night, Serenity looked at the monitor display of the base, now in ruins. Smiling, she felt she had accomplished something necessary and worthwhile.  
"_Mum, dad... It's finally starting. ESPA will regret what they did to us. They will regret it."_

* * *

  


_AUTHOR NOTES_  
Hi there. :) I've been working on a new story instead of adding more to Counter Action, as I feel I cannot add much more to that at the moment. However, please note that I work a lot of hours now, so it may take a while for this to be updated. :) Next chapter will involve more character building. :)


	2. Chapter 2: In the Details

The stale air of the underground Mobile Suit hangar filled the lungs of Serenity as she sat on the floor gazing upon the Sapphire Gundam. The cold temperature of the area once called Alaska seeped its way into the hidden base, located deep beneath a massive lake.

Surrounding the young pink haired soldier were a variety of mobile suits, including repaired and modified Astrays, GINNs and of course, the Fallen and Silent Gundams. As she continued to gaze up at her new MS, her mind drifted into her memories.

* * * * *

"Honey, what's going on?"

A frantic woman was running around try to get answers from her equally terrified husband. Sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed through the village they were in, whilst spent ammo case and the debris of houses and cars littered the streets.

"I don't know!" The balding man screamed in panic as he picked up their younger daughter from her bed. "We have to get out of here. Now!"

The woman nodded and took the child as she was passed to her. Running to her bedroom, the woman hastily collected her my personal items, such as the picture of her father as well as the memory box she had been keeping. After 2 minutes, she had everything she could take in such a hurry, and after putting a bag now filled with her memories on her back, she picked up the child once more and run to meet her husband at the front door.

He was carrying a small camping bag that she knew held a tent, food and small camping cooker. That was going to be their house until all this passed, that was obvious. Nodding at her husband to open the door, she prepared herself to run as fast as she could. However, when the door opened and they stepped outside, they were greeted by a Mobile Suit directly in front of them.

* * * * *

Serenity snapped back into reality suddenly, causing her body to shake and lose balance, sending her to the floor. Now staring at the ceiling of the hangar bay, tears began to stream from her eyes as she just gazed upwards, silently. Then the silence of the hangar was interrupted by footsteps approaching the young woman. It was Kyle.

"You know, it's pretty dirty on this floor. Can't be good for the white dress," he said, following it with a slight chuckle before noticing the tears on Serenity's face. "You were thinking about them again?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Come on, you don't need to calm me 'sir' all the time. And you really shouldn't think about it so much. It's not like they died."  
"Although Dad sometimes says it would be easier if he had..."

Serenity, still laying on the floor, looked up at her commanding officer as a smile but friendly smile of concern appeared on his face. It was obvious to her that he was looking for the right words to say. They'd known each other long enough for her to see that much easily.

"Well, we're gonna have a briefing in three hours. Try to calm down and rest until then, okay?"  
"Yes sir."  
"Come on Serenity, seriously. Just call me Kyle once in a while," he replied, pausing for a second. "And ignore that rhyme, okay?"

She giggled a little and nodded before forcing herself to stand. She'd been on the floor for so long now that her back hurt considerably as she got up, feeling like 1000 needles being stabbed into it at once. She always tried to hide the expression of pain on her face, but never managed too, and it always made Kyle and Marcus laugh. This time was no exception as Kyle closed his eyes, shook his head and chuckled again before Serenity saluted him.

Returning the salute, the Captain turned and walked toward the exit of the hangar, his unbuttoned black uniform shirt swaying in the breeze created by engineers testing a new cooling system. Serenity would be the first to admit that Kyle had an air of calmness and, for lack of a better word, coolness about him. But that wasn't to say she thought he was attractive. Admittedly most girls in they knew in the UER thought he was, but not her, and that was probably the reason he was friendly to her, rather than the others.

She swiped the back of her dress, and looked at her hand to see there was almost no dirt at all. _"The engineers must have cleaned the hangar recently"_ she thought as she began to walk to the exit as well. She did hate walking past engineers though. She could always feel them watching her. She wasn't the most beautiful woman in the world, but she wasn't ugly, and she was probably the only person in the entire facility who would work around in a knee length white dress and shin high black boots, making her very noticeable. She was never sure if she wanted that or not.

Nevertheless, at the moment she had only three hours to prepare for her briefing. She calmly but swiftly moved through the facility, passed the mess hall and training rooms, to the sleeping quarters. She had been given room 212 on the second floor of the sleeping quarters, which actually meant the next floor down.

Upon entering her room for the first time, she was unsurprised by it. A small square room with a single bed, desk and computer system, along with a shower bay and nice cream painted walls; the usual. Still, it was more than enough as she would only be staying in it for about 3 months.

Slipping out of her boots and dress and locking the door into the room, she continued to undress, revealing the large number of scars on her lower back, before walking into the shower bay. As the water dripped down over her body, enveloping it in a gentle warmth, she felt the muscles in her body relax.

After 20 minutes in the shower, she decided it was long enough and stepped out before drying herself with the complimentary towel and getting dressed into her white and black Lieutenant's uniform. It wasn't very flattering to wear as it hugged her body rather tightly, but then, it had been designed by men, so she knew why it did that. She found it frustrating, but that was life. At least she didn't _have_ to wear skirts, like the ESPA forces make their female soldiers do. She hated skirts. Partially because of the scar on her right leg, but mainly because she felt they were unflattering garments made to please horny teenagers.

Shrugging it off, she unlocked the front door, stepped out and locked it again before walking out of the sleeping quarters section and moved to the facilities elevator to go down five floors to the military section. In the main briefing room, a large rectangular room of white filled with cushioned chairs and a data display board, Marcus was already there, sleeping in one of the front chairs. He'd had the same idea as her. She decided to join him in the room anyway, and sat down one seat away from him. One thing she had found out very fast about Marcus is that he needs his personal space. During their first ever briefing, he had gotten very agitated and loud about other soldiers sitting the seats directly next to him. Since then, people always leave on seat between themselves and Marcus.

Serenity lent her head back against the chair and breathed deeply. Just 1 hour and 30 minutes left to wait. It went passed slowly, which she liked. It felt like she had longer to just sit and relax that way. All she could hear were the sounds of foot prints walking past the room and Marcus snoring next to her.

However, one and half hours later, the footsteps increased and she could tell that the rest of the Aritide Squad were coming to the briefing room. Waking up Marcus with a sudden punch on the arm, she jolted back slightly to avoid retaliation.

"What the hell are you doing?"  
"Waking you up. It's time for the briefing to start."  
"What? It's that late already?"  
"Yes it is," said a gruff voice outside the door as Kyle entered the room, followed by the other 7 members of the Squad.

Serenity could never remember their names. Seven privates who do nothing but sleeping and complain are very hard to remember. However, now wasn't the time to think about that, Kyle was standing by the data display board ready to get started. On the right armrest of the seats, a small data display rose up.

"If you take a look at the display," Kyle started, "you'll get a brief description of our objective. We are to make a swift and decisive assault upon an ESPA experimental Mobile Weaponry facility located in southern England."

The data display board behind him burst into life showing a satellite image of the facility. Kyle moved to the right of the DDB and picked up a pointer stick. Pointing to the centre of the image, he continued.

"As you can see, above ground there is very little here. To the south you have the Comm. Tower, and to the north, the main underground entrance. The plan of attack is to split into two three groups. One with concentrate on securing the runway to the west, the second will act as a defense force, taking and guarding the Comm. Tower, and the final one will attack with Mobile Suits, making their way into the underground facility to carry out the main assault.

The teams themselves will be made up as follows; Assault Team will consist of myself, Serenity and Marcus, the Tower Team will be made up of David, Carlos and Mitch, and the Runway Team will be Adam, Ryan and Sean.

Carlos, David, you two are in charge of your teams. Consider this a test for promotion. Now, listen up, I have one important order to give before we leave. Since four of you are now going on your first mission, I want all of us to return alive. Got it?"  
"Sir, yes sir," replied the entire team, in almost perfect sync.  
"Very good. We are to launch at 0300 hours. Runway and Tower teams will take a B-475 transport jet, whilst the Assault team will move out in our Suits. Until then, you are on free time. Dismissed."


End file.
